Published: 2017-03-03
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Excerpt from Fourth Report on the American Temperance Society: Presented at the Meeting in Boston, May, 1831 III. It is hurtful. Its whole influence is injurious to the body and the mind, for this world, and the world to come. I. It forms an unnecessary, artificial, and very dangerous ap petite; which, by gratification, like the desire for sinning in the man who sins, tends continually to increase. N 0 man can form this appetite without increasing his danger of dying a drunkard, and exerting an influence which tends to perpetuate drunken ness and all its abominations to the end of the world. Its very formation, therefore, is a violation of the will of God. It is, in its nature, an immorality, and springs from an inordinate desire of a kind, or degree of bodily enjoyment - animal gratification, Which God has shown to be inconsistent with his glory, and the highest good of man. It shows that the person who forms it is not satisfied with the proper gratification of those appetites and passions which God has given him, or with that kind and degree of bodily enjoyment, which infinite wisdom and goodness have prescribed, as the utmost that can he possessed consist ently with a person's highest happiness and usefulness, the glory of his Maker, and the good of the universe. That person covets more animal enjoyment: to obtain it, he forms a new appetite, and in doing this, he rebels against God. That desire for increased animal enjoyment, from which this rebellion Springs, is sin; and all the evils which follow in its train, are only so many voices by which Jehovah declares the way of transgressors is hard. The person who has formed an appetite for ardent Spirit, and feels uneasy if he does not gratify it, has violated the divine ar rangement; disregarded the divine will; and if he understands the nature of what he has done, and approves of it, and continues in it, it will ruin him. He will show that there is one thin in which he, will not have God to reign over him. And shou d he keep the whole law, and yet continue knowingly, habitually, wilfully, and perseveringly to offend in that one point, he will perish. Then, and then only, according to the Bible, can an man be saved, when he has respect to all the known will of Go and is disposed to be governed by it. He must carry out into practice, with regard to the body and the soul, not my will, but thine be done. His grand object must be to know the will of God; and when he knows it, to be governed by it, and with re gard to all things. This, the man who is not contented with that portion of animal enjoyment which the proper gratification of the appetites and passions which God has given him will afl'ord. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
